Bananarama Are Re-Uniting

Vanilla Gorilla · Apr 30, 2017

There is balance in the world now

Bananarama reunion report sparks a rumour that the 80s are back
Susie O’Brien, Herald Sun
April 29, 2017 12:00am

I HEARD a rumour that 1980s girl band Bananarama is reforming.

Forget the looming crisis in North Korea.

Forget the French elections.

Forget the Prime Minister’s meeting with the US President.

The biggest news of this week is the fact that singer Siobhan Fahey has rejoined the band for the first time in 30 years. This means the original Bananarama is about to go on tour for the first time ever.

They’re bound to perform all of their huge hits, including I Want You Back, Love in the First Degree, and I Heard a Rumour.

And, no doubt the big one, Venus, or as we used to call it, “Penis”.

It’s yet another sign that we’re in the middle of a very deep 1980s identity crisis. It seems to be fuelled by Gen Xers like me keen to show that despite our reading glasses and knee operations, we are still young.

OK, not really young, but at least young enough to remember what it was like to actually be young. And that’s the same thing, isn’t it?

Fahey has said she went back to the band because she was feeling nostalgic for the 1980s and wanted to celebrate the “joyful and creative period”.

Clearly, her 1980s was very different to mine.

Unlike Fahey, who was cool and popular, I spent the 1980s hanging out in the local video store hoping the cute guys didn’t notice me hiring Richard Simmons workout videos.

I spent my time dropping film off at the chemist, only to find half the photos contained photos of my friends’ brothers’ bare behinds. Sadly, there’s no delete button on a Kodak disc camera.

I also spent the 1980s eavesdropping on my sister talking to boys in the hallway, with the curly phone cord stretched to give her some privacy (or so she thought).

Obviously, it was a simpler time.

Back in the 1980s, reality TV shows didn’t pay people to get married on air, female pop stars didn’t clap using their butt cheeks and occupations such as social media influencers hadn’t been invented yet.

For daggy teens like me it was all about watching Countdown, perfecting our double denim outfits, hanging out at Sportsgirl buying plastic bracelets and looking up dubious rashes in Dolly Doctor.

But what united us all — the cool and the not-so-cool — was music.

My friends and I loved Bananarama because they were an all-female band who were a little bit punk with their shaggy hair, ripped jeans and overalls.

They also wore men’s braces stretched between their legs although I never quite knew what they were meant to be holding up.

I’m pretty sure that dancing to Venus in 1986 wearing belted high-waisted acid-wash jeans and a spotted crop top was one of the standout moments of my youth.

This is why I don’t think I could possibly see Bananarama as an adult. It would be too confronting.

I’m worried I am going to find out that Venus wasn’t really a very good song. Already this week I’ve discovered that Bananarama didn’t even write it. It was a cover from Dutch band Shocking Blue. Even worse, they got one of the lyrics wrong.

I might also find out I never looked good in those acid-wash jeans I wore all the time and that I wasn’t even a particularly good dancer.

I’m also scared I will discover that Fahey and the other two hot chicks we all wanted to be like were not quite as cool as we thought.

Fahey was quoted in an interview this week, as saying that people “wet their knickers” when people find out she’s “Siobhan from Bananarama”. Hmmm, classy.

And no doubt I’ll find out these sassy young stars are now nearly old enough to get a public transport seniors card. Like the rest of the 1980s rock legends, they’re getting on in years.

Jon Stevens from Noiseworks, for instance, is now a grey-haired grandfather who’s had a double heart bypass. Ross Wilson from Mondo Rock who once sang Come Said The Boy is nearly 70. And Cold Chisel’s Jimmy Barnes has come full circle after 44 years in music and has just made a record with the Wiggles.

Some of the biggest 1980s stars have even stopped making music.

The Thompson Twins’ Alannah Currie is now a militant feminist and an “armchair destructivist” and Howard Jones is now a 62-year-old vegetarian.

How did this happen?

Being at a Bananarama show would no doubt be like being at the George Michael concert a few years ago. It was a gathering of gay men in tight black T-shirts escorted by middle-aged women squeezed into jeans bought 10 years and 5kg ago. (Yep, this definitely included me.)

Perhaps it’s all a sign that the ‘80s — the decade that brought us silly lyrics like “too shy-shy, hush-hush, eye-to-eye” and ridiculous hits like Shaddapa You Face — are best left in the past.

As they say, nostalgia sure ain’t what it used to be — just like my eyesight and dancing ability.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/susie-obrien/bananarama-reunion-report-sparks-a-rumour-that-the-80s-are-back/news-story/585398c92e1965613747afe1b77c008f
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http://youtu.be/9ePIZugahFc

Bilby · Apr 30, 2017

I sent some nice friendly messages to Sara Dallin but she never replied. She writes and sings all these songs about finding love but cannot find it herself. maybe she is too fussy.

The Walking Dickhead · Apr 30, 2017

I still fancy Keren

Bilby · May 2, 2017

I noticed with Bananrama videos,there are many topless male dancers. I wonder if this is some sort of gender role reversal?

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